Allwinner to launch 64-bit ARM SoCs this year

Chinese chipmaker Allwinner is planning to introduce its first 64-bit ARM SoC by the end of the year. The upcoming chip should be showcased at the Hong Kong Electronics Fair in October.

Allwinner has not revealed any specs, aside from a few features such as support for 4K resolution and H.265 video playback. The company says its first ARMv8 chips should ship by the end of the year. This means it shouldn't be far behind competitors such as MediaTek.

Allwinner has managed to seize a sizable portion of the Chinese white-box tablet market. Although it is not a huge brand in the west, Allwinner's market share is huge. IDC estimates it is the second biggest maker of SoC tablet parts - second only to Apple.

The company managed to ship 18.2 million tablet processors in Q4 2013 out of a total of 88.2 million shipped units. Its arch rival Rockchip sold 9 million during the same quarter, while Intel barely managed five million.

However, Intel and MediaTek have stepped up their efforts to seize a chunk of the Chinese tablet market and Allwinner is facing a lot more competition in 2014.